LOS ANGELES - Jan. 9, 1998 - Kistler Aerospace today announced that Walter Kistler (age 79), chairman emeritus, and Bob Citron (age 65) two early pioneers of the commercialization of space who co-founded the company, are stepping down from its board of directors to make room for new members who have agreed to join the Kistler Board. Both will continue to work with Kistler as advisors in a variety of capacities.

Washington, DC - U.S. Representative Dave Weldon (R-Palm Bay) will challenge NASA to investigate the feasibility of space-based solar power systems at a House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee hearing today.

Buzz Alrin's new popularity shows both that there's a lot of interest in him still, and that the general public are becoming increasingly interested in space again. Florida Today carried this article covering the return of the second man on the moon to the publicity spotlight:

Comany Press Release:

On October 24 the US House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics held a hearing to examine the viability of microwave energy from space. They discussed the need to direct NASA to study SPS, since it is not working on this project, despite its promise to provide an economic return on taxpayers' huge investment in space. For a fuller report see http://www.nss.org/alerts/capsules/capsule17.html

From "The Rapidly Changing Face of Computing", a weekly technology journal providing insight, analysis and commentary on contemporary computing and the technologies that drive it, available at http://www.digital.com/rcfoc/:

"Hotel Mir: The American Plan" by Harvey Wichman, Director of the Aerospace Psychology Laboratory, Huntingdon Beach, California published in Space News, included the comments:

An article in December's "Wired" magazine entitled "Reality Check: The Future of Hotels" asked the question: "Might we one day blast off to soak in whirlpool spas in outer space?" It published comments on the idea from three hotel industry professionals.

The Final Report of the joint study carried out since 1995 by NASA and the Space Transportation Association (STA) in Washington DC is due to be published in January, according to Thomas F Rogers, the President of STA.

A new grant has been provided by the Japanese Ministry of Education to enable the team of Professor Hideo Matsuoka, Professor Makoto Nagatomo and Dr Patrick Collins to continue their field research selecting rectenna sites for the " SPS 2000" Project in equatorial countries. The SPS 2000 satellite is being planned to transmit 10 MW of solar-generated microwave energy from an altitude of 1100 km above the equator to a number of rectennas within +/- 3 degrees latitude.